DECO Discovers: IKEA Flat-Pack Shelter for refugees

Ikea has just launched the latest addition to its flat-pack range: a refugee shelter. The Ikea Foundation joined forces with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) to make it possible, with the team sending flat-pack style shelters to areas in desperate need of temporary housing, with the aim of replacing the commonly used white canvas tent, and attempting to improve living conditions for people in refugee camps.

IKEA’s shelters come flat packed, making for easy transport

Assembly of the hut is easy and can be built in just four hours.

Five people can sleep comfortably inside, which is twice the size of the regulation refugee tent.

The best part: the homes have solar-panelled roofing, allowing inhabitants to generate their own electricity, extinguishing the need for candles or kerosene lamps. The roof also helps to deflect solar reflection by 70%, keeping the interior cool during the day and warmer at night.

Before this invention, the UNCHR was only able to provide tents or converted mass-shelters for the influx of refugees into countries around the world. Now, with IKEA’s help, these displaced citizens will not only have privacy and comfort, but the dignity of having their own place.

They collect orders from customers, and import the products directly to South Africa once a month by the container load. They are in no way affiliated with Ikea, but simply shop and import the products on your behalf. By combining orders from various customers they do this in an affordable, secure and efficient manner.